Effect of self-generated magnetic field on the two-plasmon decay instability in a laser-produced plasma

Summary In this paper we have made a theoretical investigation on the two-plasmon decay instability of laser radiation in the presence of the selfgenerated magnetic field at the quarter-critical density region in a laserproduced plasma. The Vlasov equation in terms of guiding centre coordinates has been employed to obtain the nonlinear response of electrons in the plasma. The threshold power density of the incident laser radiation for the two-plasmon decay instability is always exceeded in currently employed power densities in laser-target experiments and above the threshold the growth rate of the instability is quite large. It is also noticed that the selfgenerated magnetic field enhances the threshold to a large extent, thus drastically reducing the growth rate of the instability. To speed up publication, the author of this paper has agreed to not receive the proofs for correction